Simple EQ you can use!

Whether you’ve been here since the start or subscribed yesterday, it doesn’t matter because we’re starting our first series!

I wanted to launch the first Perspectives on Leadership series on emotional intelligence (EQ). We’ll introduce the four elements of EQ today and then dive deep into each area over the next month. This will be a six-part series covering emotional intelligence in detail. I’ll also be releasing a few YouTube videos throughout the series to help you learn and master EQ!

Let’s start by defining what emotional is and isn’t. Emotional intelligence is recognizing, understanding, and managing your emotions to ensure you can effectively interact with others. EQ is essential for leaders as it’s been linked to high performance in almost every job. It’s one of the best predictors of high performance in the workplace today.

Emotional Intelligence is not being liked by people, being personable, or even being social. You can be an outgoing, charismatic jerk who is unaware of how their behaviors impact their team. Just like you can be a quiet, shy person who knows how to instantly build a connection when someone is down in the dumps.

The best thing about EQ is that you can develop it and enhance your emotional intelligence over time. It’s not like IQ, which is relatively fixed from an early age. EQ is a skill that you must develop. Well, this is a double-edged sword. Since EQ is a skill, you must work on it continually, lest you want the skill to atrophy. So, while you can certainly enhance your EQ, you can’t just work on it a few times and forget it.

Building and maintaining your emotional intelligence is key! Just like doctors recommend that people continually challenge their brains to keep sharp, you have to keep challenging and improving your EQ skills to stay on top!

The four parts of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is usually broken down into four main areas (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management) mutually supporting each other. Relationship management is impossible without a strong sense of social awareness, just as self-management will be challenging if you lack self-awareness.

Let’s take a look at each element of EQ:

• Self-Awareness: The ability to accurately identify and understand your mood, emotions, and triggers.

• Self-Management: The ability to use your self-awareness and adjust your behaviors and actions due to your self-awareness. This one is all about controlling your emotions (i.e., not wearing your emotions on your sleeve when it’s inappropriate).

• Social Awareness: The ability to understand the emotions of others and what they’re feeling in a particular moment.

• Relationship Management: The ability to successfully build and maintain relationships using the other three EQ skillsets.

We will explore these areas over the next four weeks and provide practical tips to help you develop each one!

Reflection

Before we start the series next week, I wanted to share a free EQ assessment resource.

I also wanted to give you a couple of questions to think about before we dive into our series next week:

• Can you identify the last time you felt these emotions and what made you feel them?

  • Anger

  • Sadness

  • Joy

  • Disappointment

  • Excitement

  • Anxiety

  • Gratitude

  • Pride

Self-awareness is the first step toward building your EQ. One of the best ways to develop self-awareness is to identify your emotions and their causes. Grab a journal for the next few weeks and jot down each time you feel a strong emotion. Note the time, who you are with, what you’re doing, and why you think you feel a certain way. Do this for a few weeks, and you’ll soon be able to identify your emotions before they overtake your actions and behaviors.

Then, you’ll be ready to alter your behaviors in the moment by practicing self-management skills! But it all starts with self-awareness—one step at a time!

What can you expect in our first EQ series?

We’ll discuss each element of EQ, and I’ll provide resources and tips to help you build your EQ skills. You can always revisit each issue in the archives!

Building EQ never stops. You can always add more EQ tools to your toolbox! Follow along on our series to add some more EQ tools to your toolbox or start building out your EQ toolbox for the first time now!

Before you leave:

Thanks for sticking around this far! I have a couple of quick updates I wanted to share with everyone:

• I’m now available for online coaching. You can check out this link for a free introduction call.

• I’ve started building the MASA Framework. I’d love for you to check it out and share your thoughts with me!

Anyway, that’s all the exciting news I have to share with everyone. I'm looking forward to chatting with some new connections this week. Feel free to reach out and schedule a time to talk with me if you’re interested! I’d love to help you on your leadership journey.

Be the leader you’d want to follow!

-Rick

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